Metchosin
A rural community of wide open spaces, pastoral countryside and bountiful farmland, Metchosin was first inhabited by Coast Salish peoples. Metchosin, or Smets-shosin as it is called in the Native Coast Salish language, was incorporated in 1984. The heart of Metchosin is at the Village Centre, where Happy Valley Road and Metchosin Road intersect and a few stores, a restaurant and a school are located. Metchosin is one of the West Shore municipalities of Langford, Colwood, View Royal and the Highlands, located to the west of Victoria. This region is known as the Western Communities, or West Shore, and stretches from Esquimalt Harbour to Rocky Point, along the shoreline of Juan de Fuca Strait.
Modern Metchosin is crisscrossed by winding rural roads leading past cultivated acreages, small forests, rocky headlands, small farms and secluded seaside homes. The municipality of Metchosin has imposed a minimum one and two acre lot size bylaw to preserve the area's rural lifestyle. This part of the world was opened for farming in the 1860s to provide fresh produce for the burgeoning population of gold miners and attendant settlers in the nearby Victoria region. As such, the natural ambience here is pastoral. Despite the absence of marshland, many of the migratory birds seen at Witty's Lagoon Regional Park also use the other parks in Metchosin as a staging area, including sandpipers, turnstones, and surfbirds, all of whom work the cobble beach for all it's worth.
Parts of the community are served by a community water system however there are large parts that are serviced by private wells. Septic tanks and septic fields are the norm. There are also some private sewage systems. Garbage collection is done on a private basis. There is limited bus service throughout the area, both for public transport and for schools. Metchosin falls under the jurisdiction of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and has a volunteer Fire Department.
